Grow

The last step is Grow. Don't mistake my use of the word "last" to lead you to believe that this step is where the discipleship process ends. In stead you should understand the 4 steps this way: Step one is where you begin and continue to worship; Step two is where you begin and continue to connect; Step three is where you begin and continue to serve; and Step four is where you begin and continue to grow.

It is in this step that the church provides opportunities for a disciple to go deeper in their understanding of who God is as revealed in His Word and understood throughout history. This step involves intentional focused study on specific issues of Biblical truth, theology, Church history and various other areas. These opportunities will be intentionally planned and scattered throughout the calendar year with two goals in mind - (1) effectiveness and (2) flexibility.

By effectiveness we mean that if people are going to commit their time to these growth studies or classes then we need to make sure that they are getting a rich and deep learning experience. By flexibility we mean that it is important to think about the complex lives of modern disciples and go out of our way to accommodate as many busy schedules as possible. For instance, one of the very basic but highly fundamental and essential aspects of Christian theology is the doctrine of the Trinity. Though the Trinity can (and will) be taught at the sermon level it will never be handled in great depth due to the constraints on a sermon. But this does not mean that we can ignore our responsibility to teach the deep things of God to the body. How we accomplish this task is found in the fourth step of the discipleship process. We would offer a growth class on the specific doctrine of the Trinity (effective) that has a starting and ending date and is offered at different times of the day, week and year (flexible). This will allow people to be intentional about their spiritual growth. In fact, with a little bit of forethought and planning we could provide a five (or more) year schedule that lists when each growth class will be provided so that individual disciples and families of disciples can schedule the classes at the most convenient time for them. Effective & flexible. Other growth opportunities may be geared around subjects like; Creation vs. Evolution, Resolving conflict in your marriage, survey of world religions, survey of Christian denominations, etc. The goal, though, is to provide opportunities for disciples who are worshiping, connecting and serving to go deeper in their understanding of who God is as revealed in His Word and understood throughout history.

Step 1 - Worship (begin & continue)
Step 2 - Connect (begin & continue)
Step 3 - Serve (begin & continue)
Step 4 - Grow (begin and continue)